A feature that has become more common in modern slot games is the Cascading Reels feature. Slots with cascading reels offer more entertainment, more excitement, and can provide bigger wins thanks to the way they work.
A feature that has been made popular in slot games such as the NetEnt Gonzo’s Quest machine is that of cascading reels. Often also called avalanching reels or in some instances collapsing reels.
What are cascading reels?
Well, it’s a feature in a slot that when a winning combination of symbols is formed, those symbols explode or are removed from the reels, then the symbols above drop-down, including more from off screen to replace them.
This feature, in turn, gives you another opportunity to create another winning combination of symbols. This cascade is usually all within the same cost of your initial spin and can continue until you create no more winning combinations.
It’s a feature that offers a majority of benefits for the player, including bigger win potential during the base game – more excitement, and longer gameplay without paying extra.
This slot feature can be found in your standard 5×3 reel video slots but has been used to great effect in other types of slots including a whole list of Grid Slots and the BTG licensed Megaways slot machines.
Our pick of the best Cascading slots:
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Grid Slots with Cascading Reels
The Viking Runecraft slot from Play’n GO is one example of a grid slot with cascading reels. A large 7×7 grid of symbols fall from above, get a win, and those will disappear and more fall from above.
In the case of this casino game though those wins don’t just allow you to get bigger rewards, but also try and unlock a special bonus feature by getting wins on the highlighted spaces on the screen.
Another example of the potential of cascading wins is the Push Gaming Jammin Jars slot machine. This fruit-filled game on an 8×8 grid has provided a whole host of big wins. Take a look at our list of Jammin Jars slot wins at Casumo Casino throughout of January 2019 with the top player winning over 19,647 x their bet with the help of its avalanching reels, wild multipliers, and free spins bonus round.
Megaways Slots with Cascading Reels
Another type of slot that features the same style cascading symbols are the Megaways slots created by Big Time Gaming.
These Megaways games not only come with a changing number of ways to win on each spin but create a win by finding the same symbol on adjacent reels. And, yes, you’ve guessed it the symbols will vanish off-screen to be replaced by more.
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Slots like Bonanza, Extra Chilli, and the BTG licensed Medusa Megaways slot from NextGen all contain this feature, making them thrilling to spin.
So now you know what cascading slots games are, let’s find out which are the best slots with this feature to play online and mobile.
The top 5 cascading reels slots to play for real
Many casino slots that contain this feature, so picking the best list is hard to do. They come in all shapes and sizes created from a variety of different providers. What makes each game stand out though is how they use this slot feature when combining it with other features like multipliers and triggering bonus rounds.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at which games we think you should take a look at.
Note: We’ll be updating this list as new slots come out each week and month and if they are up to par might knock one or two of these of the top spots.
1. Gonzo’s Quest
For fans of slots and experienced players, the Gonzo’s Quest slot machine from NetEnt is probably one of, if not the best slot with cascading reels.
A 5 reel, 20 payline game with medium to high volatility, NetEntertainment have chosen to call the cascades, avalanching reels, but these are no ordinary reels.
On each cascade the multiplier at the top of the reels increases from x1, x2, x3, to x5 increasing the size of your wins the more consecutive cascades you get. And all from just one single spin at whichever bet level between 0.20 and 50.00 you decide.
It’s led to some impressive wins for players in the Aztec jungle, especially as in the free spins game the multiplier increases to x3, x6, x9, and x15. Plus if you like this then it’s wlso worht taking a look at the newer Gonzo’s Quest Megaways slot which also features cascading reels.
Read our Gonzo’s Quest slot review.
2. Jungle Jim El Dorado
The Jungle Jim El Dorado slot came out after Gonzo’s Quest and is Microgaming’s pursuit of capturing the eyes of those that like the Aztec explorer.
Here though instead of an old worldly Spanish explorer, they’ve swapped that out for Jim a more modern adventurer, much like Indianan Jones.
They’ve also upped the number of paylines to 25, which means the minimum bet is also raised slightly to 0.25 per spin. But where this game differs in terms of cascades is with the multiplier on a consecutive win.
Now Microgaming not to be a copycat have termed their ‘Avalaching Reels’ as ‘Rolling Reels’, (See we said that each provider like to term their slot phrases for what is essentially the same thing)
Here instead of four multiplier levels, the Jungle Jim slot gives you 5 with a 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x and 5x multiplier with that many cascades needed to trigger each. In the free spins, they’ve also added a 12x multiplier into the mix adding an extra level.
Still, it’s fun to play, offers more chances to win money from a single spin, and the replacement of the symbols is essentially the same.
Read our Jungle Jim slot review.
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3. Bonanza
Ahhh, our first and only Megaways slot on our list of cascade slots online.
The BTG Bonanza slot machine with its up to 117,649 ways to win over 6 reels offers probably the most exciting base game spins in our top five slots.
On each spin, the number of ways to win can change from a few hundred to potentially over 100,000 due to the number of symbols on each reel also changing from one up to seven.
Here the consecutive base game wins might not add up to much as lower-paying symbols tend to show up more often but enter the free spins bonus, and that’s where things get interesting.
Each cascade and win you get increases a multiplier starting from 1x and by the end of your free spins being at least 12x. But with unlimited free spins possible or at least a good 20 or so for by finding more scatters the big win potential and opportunity to win more is increased.
It’s a great game to give a go and if you like megaways slot games with the same mechanics then you’ll want to try the Monopoly Megaways slot or Piggy Riches Megaways game.
Read our Bonanza online slot review.
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4. Viking Runecraft
The first of our Grid Slots in our collection is the Play’n GO Viking Runecraft game. We’ve already described a bit about this game above, but it’s still worthy of your attention if you like high variance games with frequent low paying wins.
It brings the Vikings slot theme to life across a 7×7 grid, with 96% theoretical return to player rate that has the potential to payout up to 5,000x your bet on a single spin.
The cascades here though can help unlock special features by charging the meter on the left of the reels. This can unleash some godly features, including symbol transformations, symbol destructions, and symbol removal.
Each type offers more winning combinations by finding more of the same icons.
Read our Viking Runecraft online slot review.
And if you like the Viking Runecraft game then you might want to check out other Play’n GO slot machines like you’ll find in our Gold Volcano slot review.
5. Pyramid Quest for Immortality
An often underrated slot machine, we head to Egypt in the last slot on our list from NetEnt studios.
A 720 ways to win game, with medium to high volatility, across five reels, the avalanche reels offer your best chance at big wins.
That’s cause this real money game has no free spins or pick me bonuses, but instead brings the excitement out with random wilds, and multipliers.
With every third avalanche win upping your multiplier by one it’s not easy to increase your wins, but this slot isn’t meant for beginners but more experienced players looking for some riskier spins.
Read our Pyramid Quest for Immortality slot review
Overall whether a software provider calls them cascading reels, avalanching reels, rolling reels, collapsing reels or swooping reels, it’s all effectively a different name for the same game mechanic.
A slot game mechanism that especially when mixed with other features like multipliers offers some thrilling, heart-pounding moments that other games lack.
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